Lancashire County Council


Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors. After the 2017 Lancashire County Council election, the council is under Conservative control, having been under no overall control from 2013–17 and under Conservative control from 2009-13.
Prior to the 2009 Lancashire County Council election, the county had been under Labour control since 1985.
The Council leader, County Councillor Geoff Driver, chairs a cabinet of eight councillors - the others being A Atkinson, P Buckley, S Charles, G Gooch, M Green, K Iddon and S Turner. The eight cabinet members each have responsibility for particular functions of the council. The Interim Chief Executive and Director of Resources is Angie Ridgwell who was appointed in January 2018

History

The council was established in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, covering the administrative county. It was reconstituted under the Local Government Act 1972 to cover a different territory. In the 1990s, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool left the area covered by the council.

One Connect

In May 2011 the council's Conservative administration established a partnership with BT Group called One Connect Limited. 40% was owned by the council and 60% by BT. 800 council staff were seconded to it. It was to run various back office functions and it was claimed it would save £400 million over ten years. In 2014 the partnership was dissolved, though some services were still run by BT. A police investigation followed allegations of corrupt practices and fraud. In May 2017 Conservative councillor Geoff Driver, Phil Halsall, the council's former Chief Executive, David McElhinney, former chief executive of One Connect and its sister organisation Liverpool Connect – and Ged Fitzgerald the current Liverpool City Council chief executive and former Lancashire County Council chief executive were arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and witness intimidation.” As of September 2019 no one has been charged with any offences and it is estimated the Police cost is over £2m.

Composition

are held every four years.

Political control

County Library

Lancashire adopted the Public Libraries Act, 1919, in 1924. Library services were slow to develop as the average ratable value of the area outside the county boroughs and the other local authorities which had already adopted the act was relatively low. In 1938/39 the average expenditure on urban libraries per head was 1s. 9d., but that on county libraries was only 8 1/4d.. Another disadvantage was that government of libraries was by a libraries sub-committee of the education committee of the council. The central administration of the county library is at Preston where there are special services, special collections and staff to maintain a union catalogue.